Episode 3: Stop, I Beg of You (4)

For the sake of the exam, the academy had designed a special device, shaped in an amulet which all students are forced to bring alongside them when travelling through the unsafe territory. 

Basically, break the mana seal and an instructor will know your location, and rush to your safety.

The exam goals and objectives were reminded in brief, we were sent on our way.

Kramit Forest, located right outside the academy campus was where all past and current first semester practical exams were carried out.

From past experience, the threat level of this forest was quite minimal. Unless one went off into the deep end, a few forest wolves, trolls and goblins were all we needed to deal with. Compared to the blight monsters I’ve faced, these weren’t even a challenge.

Since I had plans to mess up Kairen’s schemes, I purposely slacked on my pace to slow him down. 

Kairen, who was playing the scout, kept turning back to look at me. Each time he did that, Tiffany would also turn to me, looking a little distressed.

At some point, perhaps out of frustration, he suggested. “Do you need me to carry you?”

“Excuse me? Is that supposed to be an insult?” I was exasperated. 

“No. At this pace, we’ll be stuck in this forest for a whole week.”

“Then the fault is with your navigation.” I said with a snort. 

“...You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?” He narrowed his eyes.

“Don’t judge me.” I sneered, faking anger and forcing my way ahead of him.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Tiffany looking at Kairen. 

He turned to her and shrugged. “If provoking her works, it works.”

“...” A sour feeling crawled up my stomach. Had I just been outplayed? 

But before I could turn back to retort, I heard a rush of wind and snapping branches. 

<Frostborne: Spear>

Reflexively, I generated a magic circle and fired left.

A direwolf jumped out—and before it could land, the spear stabbed it right into the skull. I took one step to the front, the flying corpse passing my back.

Then turning towards the other two, I saw Kairen with his sword already out, casually severing the limbs of two wolves.

Tiffany looked on with horror at the now limbless, still living body of the wolves bleeding out on the ground like flailing fish.

Meanwhile I… couldn’t help but admire his sword skills. Were those real? Two strikes with that level of precision? And the fact that the wolves weren’t howling… had he also severed their vocal cords? Not even Isodor could do that.

“Have you killed anything before?” Kairen turned to Tiffany and asked, flicking his blade to clean it of blood.

“N-No…” She answered tepidly.

“Then you better get used to it. They can’t move right now, so use your magic to kill them.” He said, looking at the dying wolves out with unchanging eyes.

“B-But…” Tiffany squinted her eyes.

“It’s normal to be scared the first time you do it. But you still have to start somewhere.” He said as if consoling. “We don’t know what would happen later down the line if you hesitate like this. Come on.”

“...Yes.” Reluctantly, Tiffany nodded.

Conjuring multiple orbs of bright burning flames, she held it above the bleeding wolves.

“S-Sorry…” Her last words as the flames of salvation fell upon them.

She burned the wolves into charcoal. The scent of roasted meat filled the air.

“Good work.” Kairen said.

Tiffany stared at the result of her magic in daze.

Then he turned to me. Or more accurately, at the wolf I had killed lying on the ground.

“Your Grace, have you eaten wolf meat before?” He asked.

“...What are you implying…?”

“Well, let this be your first experience then.” He said, approaching the corpse. “Dinner is solved.” 

“Y-You don’t intend to…” I was starting to think maybe I never quite understood this crazy bastard after all.

⌌✧ ⫺⪼▫◆▫⪻⫹ ✧⌍

Kairen didn’t take the whole wolf carcass with him. Instead, he only cut out the parts of the meat he deemed ‘most delicious’, drained them from blood and froze them in ice using my magic—why did I even agree to this—before tying them together with an ivy rope.

He and I exchanged positions, him taking the front to handle any danger while ordering Tiffany to watch over me so that I would keep pace.

Showing the map, he said that the earlier we get to the marked clearing to set up base, the earlier we would be able to start cooking the wolf meat.

As if I had never tried wolf meat before… I felt like he was underestimating me, yet I couldn’t really retort here unless I wanted to expose myself.

Still, to cook meat over a campfire? Could he actually make something gourmet out of this?

For a moment, I was looking so much forward to the experience that I had forgotten my real objective. It was to hinder his advance as much as possible!

I decided to fake a sprain.

“O-Ouch.” I groaned, bending my body forwards while grabbing my ankle.

“A-Are you okay?!” Tiffany panicked.

“I-I’m fine.” I said, and then acted as if I couldn’t walk properly with an expression of anguish.

I took a seat on one of the side lying logs, rubbing my ankle through my boots.

Kairen… this bastard simply looked at my struggling figure as if it was a non-issue. What? Did he expect an injured lady to walk?

“Tiffany, do you know healing magic?”

“Not really… Lowe is really good at it though.”

“Then nevermind.” Kairen then rolled up his sleeve.

“Huh? You can use healing magic?!”

“A little bit.” He said. “Can you take off your boots?”

No, this is bad. If he ‘heal’s’ my nonexistent wound, then I won’t have any excuses to slow us down.

“Don’t you dare! What if your snobbish abilities made things worse!” I thwarted his attempts with harsh words. And what woman would want to show him their bare legs to a weasel like him anyways?

“...” Kairen sighed, pressing his hands on his head with a look of resignation.

“What should I do now?” Tiffany asked.

“Tiffany, hold this.” Kairen passed her the frozen meat tied to ivy rope.

“O-Oh.” 

 He knelt down with his back facing me. “Hop on.”

Anyone who had some decent common sense would know what this meant.

A piggy back ride.

“...On second thought, maybe the pain is not so bad…” There’s no way I’m getting on this bastard’s back…

“Look, we don’t have a lot of time, Your Grace. If we don’t find a proper place to rest at night, we’ll all regret it later.” Kairen glared at me as if I was being too much of a bother.

“I-I won’t say a thing about this Your Grace. I promise.” Even Tiffany took me for a fool.

Was my acting that good? I was a little pleased with myself… but honestly, how the hell did the situation turn out like this?

I hated it, but I thought there was no choice. 

I got on Kairen’s back, hoping that if he carried me, it would slow him down. And it was a success! His walking pace was much slower thanks to me.

Though… looking at it that way, could it be that I was heavy? He wouldn’t be having thoughts like that right? 

And… was it just me or did Tiffany look envious?

Ah, whatever…

—Crunch. Step. Crunch…

“...” His silence, and the rhythm of his footsteps. Somehow, in the back of my mind… I thought that I had been here before.

He didn’t speak much after I got on, perhaps to conserve energy.

I didn’t say anything either, too absorbed in trying to recall why in the world I was feeling nostalgic.

Evening soon came without encountering another ambush. We arrived at the small clearing Kairen had mentioned. Putting me down, he and Tiffany then began preparing to set up camp while I watched from the corner.

Once they got the campfire running, the preparation of the wolf meat began in earnest.

He came prepared with salt and spices. I already noticed this, but earlier, Kairen had covered the meat in ice with some kind of weird leaf. He said it helps to tenderise the texture… I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of demonic knowledge he possessed…

Slicing it into chunks and skewering it with sharpened sticks, he set it over the fire to roast.

“Wow, this is good.” Tiffany, who tried the first batch, said exasperatedly.

“Right?” Kairen looked rather proud that someone had complimented his cooking skills.

I bit into the bread and smoked jerky while being sceptical.

“Your Grace, you should try some.” Tiffany said, eyes sparkling.

“No. It’s filthy.” I wasn’t going to become a victim if somehow he had laced it with slow acting poison.

“I prepared your share too princess. It’s a waste if you don’t try it.” Kairen said, holding out one directly towards me.

I hesitated. The glorious smell was enticing to a fault… how in the world does someone create such an aroma by campfire fire alone?

“On the count of three.” Kairen’s looked at me as if I were some spoilt brat. The flickering fire of the flames reflected in his amber eyes glowed with an eager light to “One, two…”

Crazy bastard.

“...Three.” Kairen took away the skewer and shoved it into his mouth. “Suit yourself.”

I felt disappointed for not accepting the food, but I also thought it was the wisest course of action.

I didn’t trust him.

I couldn’t trust him.

I hate him.

Why was he doing this?

Did he not hate me?

Even after everything I did, why…

“Since the princess doesn’t want it, we can have the extras to ourselves.” Kairen said.

“Oh…” Tiffany looked conflicted.

“It’s alright. Everyone is different. I can’t pressure someone to trust me. Anyways, at least I have you to accompany me. Cheers.” He said aloud.

“Ah, yes! Cheers!” Tiffany exclaimed with a forced smile… 

I realised then the reason for this sense of repulsion. 

Kairen was a natural womaniser. It was second nature for him to swindle the girls over in his favour.

And I wasn’t going to buy into those sweet words of his.

While I sat sidelined, the cheerful atmosphere between him and Tiffany enjoying a meal together by the campfire started to irk me.

I shook my head.

No. I wasn’t being sidelined. I was the one building the wall to keep each other at bay.

There’s no way a normal person would treat their enemy so kindly. He must’ve known I was the one bullying him. What if this was his way of taking a small revenge against me? 

Seriously… why did the game create someone like Kairen?

This was for my own safety… 

So why… was it so frustrating?

I stood up totteringly from the tree stump.

“Where are you going?” Kairen asked.

“None of your business.” I sneered.

“Don’t go too far. It may be dangerous.” He didn’t stop me.

Was this what you call being considerate? You fool.

For a moment, I pondered if it was a good idea to leave that girl with this fox. However, upon further contemplation, she would likely be left unharmed, just like in the original story.

Leaving camp, I looked up towards the sky painted in streaks of twilight hue.

It wasn’t obvious now, but knowing the plotline, I knew it was going to rain heavily tonight.

The rain acted as a camouflage for his plans.

… But I won’t allow it to succeed.

My attempts to slow him down were all for naught. Assuming the original location of Lowe’s campsite didn’t change, I could make my way over—which wasn't too far from where we had set up our’s.

I decided on a whim to go pay them a visit. Firstly to warn about the late night downpour. Secondly, about the potential threat that might befall them.

I’ll act under the assumption that the fight with Kairen’s cronies was unavoidable. In my last life, I had tried to prevent it even before the exam, but I wasn’t able to find any traces of Kairen pulling any strings. 

Even now, with Kairen acting all flirty with Tiffany, I couldn’t help but question how he did it all so cleanly.

I reached their camp in about ten minutes of walking.

Their camp looked worse than the one I had back at base for some reason… but I decided not to question that. It didn’t matter as the rain would ruin it anyway.

“Good evening.” I greeted.

The trio turned to me.